At 3-3 who thought we were done?

[Sgt. Largent]

I certainly can't say I expected Home Field Advantage after Week 11.

This.

I thought we'd still make the playoffs, but certainly didn't think we'd go 6-0 down the stretch and get the #1 seed. I figured 4-2 and the #5 or #6 seed.

Pete.Is.The.Man.

 

[canfan]

Not necessarily done, but after the Dallas game, I was shocked to see another team come into the Clink and control the line of scrimmage. I certainly thought the Division was out of reach at that point and was praying for a wild card. Very happy to have been so wrong!

 

[Vaclav44]

No way winning the division at that point (and by logical extension no #1 seed). Just wasn't gonna happen. Maayyybbee a wildcard. That's the best I thought would happen at that point.

 

[TwistedHusky]

3-3 Was worrying but it wasn't what I feared.

I feared the SF, Philly, SF stretch that was sure to gut us. After the game they dropped in STL that was winnable, and then getting ripped apart by what I considered a very average Chiefs team? That was where I was starting to almost accept that this was not the year.

Yeah I thought we were close to screwed, and considering the mountain they had to climb I still considered it a hell of feat.

It felt like there was no way that STL game or the Chiefs game was not going to come back to haunt us.

Holy crap. I still cannot believe they managed to get homefield advantage as the #1 seed after all that:

Terrible injuries to key players
Early bye
Really difficult schedule with a ridiculous road trip including an away Thursday night game
And the crazy crap with Harvin

This team somehow finds ways to win in spite of all the roadblocks that seem to be in front of it. Credit to the players and coaches on that one.

 

[Tokadub]

I wrote this thread when we were 3-3, it's titled:

"We Will Still Win The NFC West"

http://www.seahawks.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=99317

This is the highlights of what I wrote then:

I truly believe we will still get the #1 seed in the NFC West.

While most people sound defeated like we have no chance now I'm looking at the NFL landscape as a whole and the NFC West and seeing that this race is still wide open 3-3 is not a big problem if we can get things right against Carolina.

And what I'm seeing is that there are a ton of "good" teams right now that aren't really that good. A lot of these "dangerous" teams that will "knock us out of the playoffs" are really just over-rated due to their weak schedules right now.

Analyzing this seasons teams and their schedules up to this point is kinda like sifting through a big pile of poop. A long poop trail of slightly above average teams trading wins, none of them are really that threatening by the end of the season with the exception of Denver.


For Example:

Current #1 NFC West Arizona Cardinals:

They are 5-1 but the only "good" team they beat was the San Diego Chargers (explained below). They got man handled by Denver which is the only legitimately good team they've played so far.

They beat the 49ers who are terrible (explained below) as well as 3 obviously bad teams (Giants, Redskins, Raiders).


Current #2 NFC West San Francisco 49ers:

They are 4-3 but the only "good" team they beat was the Dallas Cowboys. And it took a heroically epic failure from Tony Romo to get them that win. Romo was fresh off back surgery and I'm sure if they had played them in Week 6 like we did the 49er's would of looked just like they did against the Broncos last night.

Other than that their only other "good" victory was against the Eagles who are also over-rated currently (explained below).

Other than a win handed to them by Romo and a home game against the "good" Eagles they have no wins against above average teams.

They got exposed for who they really are against Denver, in addition to losing to the bad Bears and the overrated Cardinals. I still expect the 49ers to finish with 9 wins tops just like I predicted at the beginning of the season.


CONCLUSION:

As for the NFC... Our biggest priority is obviously to win the NFC West. Both the Arizona Cardinals and 49ers are overrated and haven't proven anything so far this season as I explained above. I still think both teams will most likely finish with 9 wins just like I predicted at the beginning of the season.

The Cardinals still have 6 games they could easily lose (Eagles, Cowboys, Lions, Seahawks, Seahawks, 49ers). Even if they only lost 5 of those they'd finish the season 10-6.

The 49ers still have 4 games they could easily lose, but in my opinion (I think they are really bad) they are liable to drop 6 of them (Rams, Saints, Seahawks, Seahawks, Chargers, Cardinals). Even if they do only lose 4 of those they will still finish 9-7.

AND FINALLY WHAT MATTERS MOST THE SEAHAWKS! If we can get by the Panthers we will be 4-3 with 3 "easy" games to follow (Raiders, Giants, Chiefs).

At that point we'd be 7-3 with the remaining Schedule of Cardinals, 49ers, Eagles, 49ers, Cardinals, Rams.

All we'd have to do to win the NFC West (pretty confident 11-5 would do it) is win 4 of those games which is VERY DOABLE (none of those teams are as good as people think as I explained above).

The most important game of the Season is the Carolina Panthers. Losing to the Rams seems to have been the death blow for many fans here, but in reality if we can beat the Panthers we'll still be in a very realistic position to win the NFC West.

Right now I see a very weak or "soft" NFL landscape ripe for the taking just like last year. If anything the NFL is even weaker than it was last season now that the 49ers are gone who were our only legit threat. While Denver has stepped up to take advantage of how average most teams are, we have fallen off a cliff this year compared to our potential.

It's now or never but I still think we can go 11-5 and win the NFC West if even the slightest shred of the 2013 Seahawk's spirit still lives on.

I wish I had stayed with this confidence throughout the entire season, but my common sense and statistical brain wouldn't allow it... after we lost to Kansas City we went down to 6-4 while the Cardinals were 9-1....

I also heard on ESPN or NFL Network that NO TEAM HAS EVER WON THEIR DIVISION BEING 3 GAMES BEHIND GOING INTO WEEK 12!

Yep, I lost confidence that our Defense would ever wake up with so little time left in the season (we allowed 159 yards and 8 yards per attempt to Jamaal Charles...)

We were also allowing over 20 points per game and were around 17-20th in the league in our defensive passing yards allowed for a large part of the season. We had no pass rush and very little turnovers, while Offensively we looked stale and were barely even using Lynch in 2 of our losses (Chargers, Cowboys).

So yeah after we went 6-4 I thought it would take a miracle to win the NFC West (has never been done before being so far behind so late in the season), and I thought we might not even make the playoffs since the 49ers had a way easier schedule then us it didn't seem too unrealistic that they or the Eagles could of stolen our spot (Eagles were 7-3).

We were 6-4 and our next 3 opponents (Cardinals, 49ers, Eagles) at the time had a combined record of 22-8 (73.33% win rate).

All in all what we have accomplished here to win 9 out of our last 10 games after the way we started is LEGENDARY... I don't think the media is giving us enough credit or even recognizing how special this is...

 

[scutterhawk]

Keep in mind we had just traded Percy the week before and I believe Miller was done for the year.

Honestly?, I for one, thought that jettisoning Percy Headcase was the reason for my upswing in attitude with the Seahawks.
There was too much emphasis placed on his disgruntled and overhyped ass, and too many plays were taken away from players that really needed the reps. in our Offense.
The angst was gone, so the rest of the Season was looking up for me.
I'm no football expert by any stretch, but I know when some things just aren't jiving.

 

[Rob12]

I took a beating at work for saying that the Seahawks would return to the playoffs when we were 3-3, and then when we were 6-4. I even had diehard Hawk fans telling me I was a blind homer when I said we would run the table with six games left. I've never felt this team was done, and made a few threads on here saying as much. What I saw was a team that was being ravished by injuries. It wasn't a talent issue. I thought things would be rough for us if some of our key guys didn't make it back in time. When Bane went down, that was probably my lowest point this season, but even then I didn't feel like we wouldn't be there in the end.

My faith is this team has manifested in getting me paid over $200 in bets. I love this team.

 

[Threedee]

I maintained optimism that we would make the playoffs. Part of this might have been fueled by my coworkers' pessimism, which seemed to fuel my faith. I knew the 49ers and Rams were a mess, and I never had faith that the Cardinals could keep winning games, so I figured our division would cough up some wins for us on the latter end of the schedule.

 

[Rob12]

Never dreamed we would get that No. 1 seed, though.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

I didn't see us playing Mark Sanchez and Shaun Hill down the stretch, no.

And neither did the self-proclaimed loyalists who are strutting back-and-forth thumping their chests about how doubt is un-fanlike.

Good to see this thread made by a crow-eater, at least.

 

[Rob12]

I didn't see us playing Mark Sanchez and Shaun Hill down the stretch, no.

And neither did the self-proclaimed loyalists who are strutting back-and-forth thumping their chests about how doubt is un-fanlike.

Good to see this thread made by a crow-eater, at least.

What a gross post.

Who is saying it's "un-fanlike?" Bit defensive there, Montana. Pretty sure you were one of the ones who made a thread telling us all to stick a fork in the 2014 Seahawks earlier on... But never did I question your loyalty to the team. Looking at what was going on, it was a very reasonable position to take.

Sincerely,
A strutter and chest thumper

 

[olyfan63]

I figured we'd go 11-5 at worst, 10-6, and make the playoffs, but not be division champs.

 

[hawknation2015]

That 3rd loss was pretty crushing and I felt just as blindsided by the midseason trade of Percy Harvin and the tumult that resulted from it. However, I remained confident that the team would be playing its best football in November and December, as Carroll teams tend to do. At that point, I guessed we would still win the division at 11-5 but lose homefield advantage to Dallas.

That they not only won homefield advantage but also get to play the divisional game against an NFC South team with a losing record is truly remarkable.

:th2thumbs:

 

[Meeker]

Done? No. Worried? Very.

Despite going 3-1 in the next 4, I was even more worried at 6-4. If we continued playing the same way, we'd probably miss the playoffs...then the turnaround started. Two weeks later, looked up our chances at HFA and saw that we had a pretty decent chance if we won out...funny how in just 2 games your mindset can completely change.

 

[Tical21]

I never gave up on 12-4 and the number 1 seed. I thought we were still the most talented team in the league by a wide margin and would find a way to pull it all together when we needed to, but wow, we sure lived more dangerously than I thought.

 

[themunn]

I didn't see us playing Mark Sanchez and Shaun Hill down the stretch, no.

And neither did the self-proclaimed loyalists who are strutting back-and-forth thumping their chests about how doubt is un-fanlike.

Good to see this thread made by a crow-eater, at least.

If you didn't see us playing Shaun Hill (Rams starter after Bradford went down) who did you see us playing? Austin Davis (Rams 3rd string Qb)?

 

[McGruff]

At the beginning of the season I predicted 16-0.

At 3-3 I predicted 13-3.

At 6-4 I predicted 12-4.

Good teams lose games. But there isn't a single team in the NFL I wouldn't give us a 60% chance or better of beating. That's been true after every win, and true after every loss, and its still true going forward. Could we lose? Sure. Should we lose? No in my eyes.

There is nobody better than us and hasn't been all year.

 

[MontanaHawk05]

I didn't see us playing Mark Sanchez and Shaun Hill down the stretch, no.

And neither did the self-proclaimed loyalists who are strutting back-and-forth thumping their chests about how doubt is un-fanlike.

Good to see this thread made by a crow-eater, at least.

If you didn't see us playing Shaun Hill (Rams starter after Bradford went down) who did you see us playing? Austin Davis (Rams 3rd string Qb)?

You mean the guy who beat us once already? Yeah.

I absolutely did post a "we're probably done" essay after the KC loss. However, it was a bit more reasonable and measured than quite a few, stuck to facts, and gave credit to the team's positives. The Seahawks were not playing up to their full potential, and ahead of them loomed a bunch of games against a division with defenses built specifically to beat us and a better record of doing so than anyone in the league. Had the situation stayed the same, I'm sure we would have missed out on the #1 seed, probably the division, possibly even the playoffs.

Fortunately, the situation didn't stay the same. The defense figured itself out. Our offensive coordinator got a little better. And we experienced just the improbable winning streak we needed, bolstered by every worrisome QB conveniently falling onto to the bench like dominoes paving the way for us. There was a fair amount of luck (destiny?) involved in our race to the top. Rarely does a three-game division deficit result in a division win in this league.

So I still stand by the opinion at the time, from that vantage point, that a division win was questionable and the #1 seed a big stretch.

I don't mind being wrong. What really irks me? Is the opinion of a few people that this board is only for the believing and optimistic fans. It's not. It's open to every opinion, or should be.

 

[bjornanderson21]

I didn't think we were "done" in the sense that I still felt our playoff hopes were alive, but I felt our chances of getting the #1 seed was about 1%.

It is AMAZING that the hawks were able to nab the #1 seed. Go hawks

 

[Mtgriz2244]

After the KC loss I was thinking the Hawks had no shot at the #1 seed however I still thought there was a shot at the division title or a wildcard spot.

I'm happy to say, I was still not shooting high enough with my expectations.